The European Union recommended Monday that its 27 nations reimpose restrictions on tourists from seven countries, including Israel, because of rising coronavirus infections there.
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The decision by the European Council reflects growing anxiety that the rampant spread of the virus in these countries could jump to Europe. The guidance issued, however, is nonbinding, and member countries will keep the option of allowing fully vaccinated foreigners in.
Israelis should expect a mishmash of travel rules across the continent since the EU has no unified COVID tourism policy and national EU governments have the authority to decide whether or how they keep their borders open during the pandemic.
"Nonessential travel to the EU from countries or entities not listed [on the safe list] ... is subject to temporary travel restriction," the council said in a statement. "This is without prejudice to the possibility for member states to lift the temporary restriction on nonessential travel to the EU for fully vaccinated travelers."
Travelers would have to be immunized with one of the vaccines approved by the bloc, which includes Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson.
The EU recommendation doesn't apply to Britain, which formally left the EU at the beginning of the year.
Possible restrictions on tourists could include quarantines, further testing requirements upon arrival or even a total ban on all nonessential travel from the seven countries.
The EU also removed the United States, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and North Macedonia from the safe travel list.
The European Council updates the safe travel list every two weeks based on criteria related to coronavirus infection levels. The threshold for being on the EU safe list is having not more than 75 new COVID cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days.
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